october, 2026
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Event Details
How can Aberdeen heat homes and buildings more sustainably while supporting a fair and practical energy transition for its communities?
The Aberdeen Geothermal Feasibility Pilot (AGFP) is exploring whether geothermal heat could become part of the answer by gathering the first direct subsurface evidence needed to assess the city’s potential. A research project funded by UKRI-NERC and led by the University of Aberdeen, AGFP combines an instrumented on-campus research borehole with a dense passive seismic survey across the city to map the subsurface to depths of up to 5 km. Together, these data will improve understanding of temperature, geology, groundwater, fractures, and rock properties beneath Aberdeen, helping to reduce uncertainty and inform future geothermal decisions. The project also addresses the wider barriers to geothermal uptake in cities like Aberdeen, including investment risk, public awareness, skills transition, heat network readiness, and fuel poverty. By linking subsurface science with education, community engagement, and practical planning, AGFP is helping to make geothermal more visible, credible, and achievable. It aims to combine open-access data and local partnerships to advance geothermal from a promising idea into a realistic option for Aberdeen’s just energy transition.
Dr David Cornwell is a Senior Lecturer in Geophysics at the University of Aberdeen and an observational geophysicist and seismologist specialising in imaging and monitoring the Earth’s subsurface. He holds degrees in Geophysics, Exploration Geophysics and Seismology from Leicester and Leeds, and his research spans ambient seismic noise, geothermal exploration, tectonics, earthquake hazards, and subsurface imaging. He is Co-Lead of the Aberdeen Geothermal Feasibility Pilot, which is using research drilling, city-scale seismic imaging and fibre-optic monitoring to investigate Aberdeen’s geothermal potential.